Help! Looking for someone that can help my 90 y/o mom with her computer. Will pay.
About 6 months ago I moved my 90 y/o mom into independent/assisted living. When I moved her in I setup her Mac Air, iPhone, iPad & wireless printer to work with their server. Everything was working fine till they switched her from their server to her own Spectrum account. I don't know what caused the change but she said she had been having a problem streaming Netflix.
I have always kept our devices identical so I could help over the phone but now we're both getting frustrated. Unfortunately, I live 500 miles away and even if I go there to help it will take me awhile to trouble shoot everything.
She is AMAZINGLY good with the computer, phone, etc., especially considering she is NINETY!! I'm hoping to find someone that can go to her apartment in Port Orange, FL, get everything setup smoothly and help her with any problems she's having now and down the road. I'd also like to get the two of us set up with an assistant remote program so I can help her from here. Any recommendations?
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If she can do the simple download and get to the screen with ID and temp password, that’s enough to get you in and then you can tinker with the settings for her.
I have clients who just give me the temp password each time we meet but for your Mom, it will be easier if you create a remote password you can use whenever she needs you (I do this with my Dad 😉
The ID code will remain the same for that computer. Good luck!
It's not always easy, but fyi I was able to help my mother (remote, 92 years old) by using
the remote screen sharing (and control) that's built into macOS:
E.g. https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/share-the-screen-of-another-mac-mh14066/mac
Works best if the remote mac is not behind a NAT engine and their firewall doesn't block your
connection attempts 
It's not for the impatient and helps if you're willing to work to get it working the first time
Yeah, I've never had much use for Apple Remote Desktop (even when I
had a legal copy). I've always gotten just as much use from this application:
/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Screen Sharing.app
You can find it by giving "/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications"
to the Finder's "Go to Folder..." command. I use it enough that I've dragged it
into my dock to make it easier to find
It's great for connecting to other machines on your LAN (e.g. connect to
"foo.local" to connect a host called "foo" ). Or if the other Mac is fully on the
Internet (i.e. not behind a router that does NAT IP address sharing or otherwise
blocking your connection attempt) you can connect by giving that Mac's
IP address to the prompt.
Also ... if you are both have "Messages" working well, then in the chat window
with your mother, there will be a little circled "i" button in the top right of your chat window.
If you click it, you should see a row of icons that are labeled: call video share mail info.
if you click on "share", you should see options to share your screen, or request the remote
user to share their screen. Once connected you can decide whether to control or just
observe the remote machine.
It's more than a little tricky to use (often the share button is not clickable), but ... I hope
this helps and doesn't just lead to a lot of frustration.
Good luck
Last edited Sat Sep 10, 2022, 04:47 PM - Edit history (2)
This might work for you .. the Screen Sharing thing works pretty well, but yeah, it's a little confusing.
Just fyi, NAT is short for Network Address Translation. It's a way of sharing network addresses (IP addresses) so you can have lots of computers (devices) all using the same address.
It works great, but it makes it hard for outside computers to reach the individual machines that are sharing the NAT address ... more details if you want them
And easier way ... but somewhat less reliable:
1) On your mothers computer, go to system preferences, Sharing, and enable "Screen Sharing". You don't need to enable "Remote Management" (though that should work too I think).
2) On *both* of your computers, fire up the Messages application. Use it to send some text messages back and forth and confirm that it's working. You might need to add/update your contacts with the icloud address of the other on both machines.
3) Once that works, on *either* computer, look closely at the Messages window for your chat. The top line should say "To: " and then on the right side should be a little "i" in a circle button. Click it.
4) You should see a popup dialog now with their full name and a row of buttons (and then some other stuff). That row of buttons should be:
5) call, video, share, mail, info
6) if you're lucky, the share button will be clickable (and not grayed out / disabled).
If you can click the share button, you'll get another prompt "Invite to share screen" or "Ask to share screen"
Your mother would pick invite, you would be request
And then you should see her screen in a window. One of the buttons will switch from observe only to observe and control.
And then it should be pretty easy
Biggest problem though is (for me) sometimes that share button isn't enabled. It's not clear to me exactly when it fails. Hopefully you'll have better luck.
Btw - try and be sure that your Contacts info has your mother's cell number and iCloud address in them. And your mother's Contacts info for you should have your iCloud name too. That way messages will be using the iCloud to text back and forth and not just use SMS messages. The iCloud connection is what allows the screen sharing to work. And of course when you request (or offer) to share your screen, the other person should get a popup alert asking if it's ok.